BEAUTY IS IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER…. THE ORIGINS OF RACISM IN MODERN TIMES?
I was sitting on the stretch of grass behind my sister’s house in Miami. I noticed a visitor, that I had not seen before. Ducks come and peer curiously at the books I am reading and go on with their foraging but this visitor sat there at the canal’s edge and stared at me and getting his share of this 29 C sunshine.
I nudged closer and took a photograph of my iguana visitor. Iguanas are a common site around Florida and of course they are seen in abundance in Mexico (remember The Night of the Iguana?) and the Caribbean. A marine one had evolved in the Galapagos and of course Lizards as a species are 65 million years old and there ar goannas in Australia, Komodo dragons in Indonesia and on and on.
I don’t mind them.
(habitat of the monitor lizard family)
I sent the photo to some friends and a response from Germany made me think.
The friend, a non-German living in Germany simply said : It is ugly and I don’t like them.
Suddenly my mind was flooded with so many thoughts. Hippopotamus in River Zambesi, our own Platypus, some species of fish … are they too ugly?
Beauty is certainly in the eyes of the beholder.
But when it comes as a judgement against innocent subjects, whether an iguana in Florida or a Arab refugee in Europe, what goes on your mind ?
We may dislike something because it is not like us, the classic hatred of the OTHER, but disliking an iguana perhaps is just a human nature. Iguana is a Spanish word from the Taino Indian word for it Iwana. I do not want an Iguana for a pet but I don’t think I dislike them.
When I was a child one of the lessons my jewish elders taught was. Be aware of any one who says, they hate a particular group of people, to those people we are next in line. To this day I am not interested in discourses that say that such and such a group is viewed with hate, I know we are next in line. A person cannot be racist against just one group, it is a condition of the way of thinking that we hate one group or other. They used to say Australia was least racist country but at that time there were not many non-European people living there. Now that about 10 percent of the country is of non European origin, you can see racism rise its ugly head: it is the fear of the other.
We talk about diversity, but what is diversity without tolerance? I was frightened by the amount of anti-immigrant sentiment in Hamburg, on a visit in 2018, among educated people. The tone and the language was very similar to what we read in the 1930s in Germany. I was told more than once in Israel, the next holocaust will be in Europe and it would be against Muslims. We have a chance to prevent such horrors only if we readily accept differences, be tolerant of each other’s practices and be grateful for our good lives in the West.
For their part, immigrants in whatever part of the world, can try and integrate into the practices of their new countries and may have to abandon certain practices which are incongruous to the host countries.
During these difficult times the planet is going through, my heart is with the millions of refugees in various parts of the world. May they be protected, please.
The following prose/poem always remains with me.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
"First they came ..." is the poetic form of a prose post-war confession first made in German in 1946 by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It is about the cowardice of German intellectuals and certain clergy (including, by his own admission, Niemöller himself) following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Many variations and adaptations in the spirit of the original have been published in the English language. It deals with themes of persecution, guilt, repentance, and responsibility.
